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Cinnamon Soho — the restaurant run by chef-restaurateur Vivek Singh — has announced its closure, as reported by The Caterer. It opened on Kingly Street in 2012, in an area that has seen a major influx of new restaurant brands over the past five years, directed very deliberately by the landlord, Shaftesbury. Eater understands the site has been on the market for two years.
The restaurant’s website today features a holding page with a farewell message:
FAREWELL
OUR LOVELY CINNAMON SOHO
FRIENDS AND FAMILYWe have to confess to being a little sad to inform you that our time has come to an end in Soho, but we’ve loved being there and hope to find a new site soon, (you’ll be the first to know we promise), but in the meantime do visit our nearby sister restaurant Cinnamon Bazaar, in Covent Garden.
You’ll find many of your favourite dishes on the menu, and we hope some new ones too.
The Cinnamon Collection grew out of Singh’s flagship restaurant in Westminster, Cinnamon Club, one of the progenitors of high-end Indian cooking in the capital, which opened in 2001. Off-shoots from the brand now include Cinnamon Kitchens in Devonshire Square in the City (2008), at the new Battersea Power Station development (March 2018) and in Oxford (2017); as well as the Cinnamon Bazaar in Covent Garden, which opened in December 2016.
In a statement shared with Eater, Singh, said: “The restaurant no longer fits within our portfolio as we are firmly focused on rolling out the Cinnamon Kitchen brand and have recently opened sites at Westgate Oxford and Battersea Power Station.
We are also looking for sites for our more casual sister brand, Cinnamon Bazaar. Cinnamon Soho was a fantastic restaurant incubator, fostering some great talent and a nursery of creative ideas for Cinnamon Collection.”
He also confirmed that entire Soho team will be given positions within the group’s sister restaurants.
The Cinnamon Collection was taken over by Boparan Restaurants Holdings Ltd — the Ranjit Singh Boparan-owned company, which has a majority share in chains such as Fishworks, Ed’s Easy Diner, Giraffe Harry Ramsden’s — in early 2016; in the summer of that year it was announced that £10 million of investment would be used to expand the group to over 10 sites across London in 2017. Recent openings at Battersea Power Station (and in Oxford) notwithstanding, the expansion appears to have fallen short of projection.
Despite that, Tina English, the group’s commercial director, told MCA in September last year that the company did not plan to scale back its ambitious growth plans.